Painesville First Church of Christ

Painesville First Church of Christ Leading People In Their Next Step With Jesus

06/07/2026

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05/31/2026

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05/24/2026

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05/21/2026

Integrity is the alignment of your values with your words and actions.

In previous discussions, we described it as “talking the talk AND walking the walk,” or practicing what you preach. In other words: you do what you say you do.

Like all virtues, integrity exists between two extremes.

If you are deficient in integrity, you compromise your values. You’re willing to take shortcuts, bend, or even abandon your principles under pressure.

If you are excessive in integrity, you become self-righteous. You overcommit to your values without balance, humility, or wisdom.

At our last gaming session, we illustrated integrity and its extremes using Disney characters.

For compromise, let’s look at Aladdin.

Aladdin was a thief, but not a bad person. He shared what little he had, helped others, and generally tried to do good. But then he fell in love with Princess Jasmine, and because of the enormous status gap between them, he felt pressure to bridge it.

So how does he do it?

By lying his pants off.

He becomes “Prince Ali.” We all know the song. But he quickly learns how exhausting it is to maintain appearances, and how difficult it is to form a genuine relationship with someone while constantly deceiving them.

Eventually, Aladdin returns to integrity. When given the opportunity to hold onto power and status, he instead chooses honesty and uses his final wish to free Genie, as promised.

The Huntsman from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was also nominated by the group as someone who initially compromised his values before ultimately rejecting evil.

For self-righteousness, let’s look at Queen Elinor from Brave.

By all accounts, Elinor was a respected and responsible queen. She valued order, tradition, discipline, and duty, and she took those responsibilities seriously. The problem was that she tried to force those same expectations onto her daughter, Merida, who completely rejected them.

What’s interesting is that Elinor wasn’t evil, careless, or immoral. In many ways, she was trying to do the right thing. But her values became rigid. She stopped seeing Merida as an individual and instead saw her as someone who needed to fit into a structure.

Then comes the curse.

Funny thing about becoming a bear: Elinor suddenly loses control over her situation and becomes completely dependent on her daughter. But at the same time, she gains perspective. She finally sees the courageous, capable young woman Merida is becoming, and realizes that forcing her down a predetermined path wasn’t preparing her for life - it was stifling her growth.

We would all be lucky to find a genie in a lamp or be transformed into a bear so we could clearly see the errors in our ways, but unfortunately we usually have to recognize our drift ourselves.

Abuela Alma was another nomination from the group representing self-righteous rigidity.

As for characters who consistently demonstrated integrity, some nominations included Mufasa, Robin Hood, Yoda, Belle, and Tiana - characters who, despite pressure and temptation, largely remained aligned with who they were and what they believed.

Identify your values. Align your words and actions with them as best you can. But remember: values are meant to provide structure and foster growth - not become excuses for compromise or tools for control.

04/10/2026

March’s virtue was Humility - what we describe as “seeing yourself truthfully”, referring to your strengths, your flaws, and everything in between.

Think about it - In January we create the resolutions, February we put them into action, and March is the reality check - maybe our resolutions are slipping, or our habits are inconsistent.

We become more aware of our limitations, hence humility.

Like all of our virtues, humility is a balance between two extremes. On one side we have Arrogance - the excessive sense of superiority within ourselves causing us to overestimate our strengths and underestimate our weaknesses. On the other side we have Self Degradation - the negative thoughts we have about ourselves.

The Apostle Peter is a man from the Bible who exhibits humility and its extremes. He starts out as a fisherman. In Luke chapter 5, after Jesus preaches from Peter’s boat and asks him to cast his net one more time. Peter says “Master, we’ve been working all night and haven’t caught anything, but because you say so, I will lay down the nets.” As a result, he caught more fish than his nets could carry. At the sight of this, Peter falls to his knees and says “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man”. Jesus replied “Do not be afraid, from now on you will be a fisher of men.”

How does Peter represent humility here?
-Blind obedience - Peter was probably pretty confident that there was no fish in the water, but out of trust and respect to his master, he laid down the nets anyway.
-His posturing and his honesty - Peter acknowledges his faults when he says he is a sinful man. It was like an instant reality check of who Jesus was in comparison to him.

But Peter was also arrogant. During the final passover meal, Jesus tells his Apostles that they will all fall away from him. Peter responds by saying even if all the others would fall away from Jesus, he never would. Jesus responds by telling Peter, “You will deny me three times before the rooster crows. And Peter insists, “Even if I have to die for you, I will never disown you.”

How does Peter represent arrogance here?
-He is overconfident in himself.
-He considers himself superior to the other disciples.
-He underestimates the power of fear and temptation.

We return from arrogance to humility when we see ourselves truthfully again.

While in the courtyard, after Jesus’ arrest, Peter is identified as being associated with Him. Peter denies his association 3 separate times and as he hears the rooster crow, the cold harsh truth soaks back into him.
-Maybe I’m not as brave as I thought
-It turns out I do fall away
-It turns out I do disown you

Let’s talk about self degradation - this is thinking negatively about yourself and belittling yourself

Now the Gospels say that Peter weeps, but they don’t go into great detail on him degrading himself. But imagine you meet the messiah, the savior of the world, the one you said you’d never fall away from, the one you’d die for, and when push comes to shove, you’re like “nope never met the guy”. I can only imagine the amount of disappointment and self loathing I would feel after such a moment.

At the end of John’s gospel, after the resurrection, Peter returns to the life of a fisherman after Jesus’ death. This suggests that Peter no longer felt worthy of doing Jesus’ work - to be a “fisher of men”. On the shore Jesus calls for them to cast their net on the other side, and much like their story began, they caught many fish. Peter jumps in the water and swims to him, and the other men follow in the boat. On the shore Jesus asks Peter 3 times if he loves him. And each time Peter replied that he did. Jesus replied back, “Then feed my sheep.”

This is a powerful moment because Jesus is restoring Peter’s purpose here. By bearing responsibility Peter pulls himself out of self degradation and back into humility.

Responsibility reminds us that we are a part of something greater than ourselves, and that we still have the ability to contribute.

So remember:
Arrogance says, “I won’t fail.”
Self degradation says, “I’m a failure.”
Humility says, “I failed, but I still have work to do.”

03/02/2026

In the spirit of February and the holiday, our virtue of the month was Love. We define love as the committed pursuit of another’s good through care, honesty and action. There’s also 3 qualities that make something love:

1. It must be voluntary, or given of your own free will
2. It must be oriented toward the good, not just what someone is looking for in the moment, but what will ultimately make them flourish
3. There must be a cost, it’s not a passive thing and requires a form of action or sacrifice.

This month we received much love in this form from the church, our friends, and family, and we can’t thank you enough!

Love, like each of our virtues, falls between two extremes - on one side we’ll have selfishness, and on the other we’ll have enablement. Starting with selfishness, what does it mean to be selfish?

-Only thinking of your own interests
-Focus on self comforts and desires
-Not caring about others

It reminds me of the parable of the good samaritan - where Jesus tells the story about a Jewish man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The man is accosted by bandits who rob him of everything that he has and beat him half to death. As the man lay there dying, a priest comes along the same path, and when he sees the man in the road, he passes him by on the other side. The same with a Levite who comes down the same path - he sees the man in the road and passes him by on the other side. And then came the samaritan down the same path. He sees the man in the road and comes to his aid. He bandages his wounds, puts him on his donkey, takes him to an inn and bears all the expenses until he is well.

There is a stark contrast between how the priest & levite reacted and how the samaritan reacted, which begs the question - how do we go from selfishness back to love?

In a word - empathy. We enter the other person’s reality. We consider what’s at stake for them.

It was the same dying man for all three passers by, but for the Priest and the Levite, they thought about how it would affect themselves first:

-This will make me unclean
-This will make me delayed
-This will make me inconvenienced

The samaritan, on the other hand, considered the stakes of the dying man. And while it was not clear the total costs he would bear, the dying man’s fate was sealed if his situation did not change. Does the samaritan’s actions pass our love test? You tell me:

-Was it voluntary?
-Were his actions oriented toward the good?
-Did it cost him anything?

I’d say yes on all counts.

Let’s take a look at the other side of the coin - Enablement. Sometimes that’s a good thing, we think of empowerment. But in this case we’re using it to describe something else:

-Promoting bad behavior
-Shielding from consequences of actions
-Avoiding conflict

I don’t know about anyone else, but my mind immediately goes to parenting. Because there’s a thin line between love and enablement, and it’s a tight rope that parents walk every day.

In so many ways, enablement looks like kindness
And in so many ways, love looks like tension

So how do we know when it’s enablement?

-When compassion detaches from truth
-When we prioritize peace over growth, quiet over conflict
-When we absorb consequences meant for another

How do we get back to love?

-Restore truth to the compassion
-Let the owner face the consequences
-Tolerate the short term pain for long term good

So why is love stuff so important anyway?

Coincidentally, I was recommended a book called Tuesdays with Morrie, which is a story about a retired professor named Morrie Schwartz who suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and wants to share his experience with the world. The story is told by a former student (Mitch) who recorded their conversations (at Morrie’s request) in his last few months. In the latter half of the story, Morrie said something that hit me hard:

“The most important thing in life is to learn how to love, and how to let it come in. Love is how you stay alive, even after you’re gone.”

And I get what he was trying to say - Selfishness leaves behind relief, and enablement leaves behind dependency. But love leaves behind love.

And beyond your physical presence, beyond your usefulness, beyond your productivity, your reputation, your successes, beyond all that, your love stays - with the people you give it to and the people you accept it from. And that kind of lasting impact makes love incredibly important.

02/06/2026

Gaming on a Sunday Afternoon is back for year 3! For 2026, we started our 12 virtue series where we discuss a virtue each month. We all have some idea of what the word virtue means, but we like to describe it as maintaining a balance between two extremes - like holding an egg. If you hold it in your hand too loosely, you drop the egg. But if you hold it too tightly, you squish the egg. The virtue is being able to hold the egg without dropping or squishing it.

Our first virtue of the year is Reflection - a self examination of our thoughts and actions to live more intentionally. January was the perfect time for this. 2025 is behind us. We reflect on all the things we accomplished, the things we didn’t, and we make resolutions for the year to come.

Like all of our virtues, Reflection is the balance between two extremes. On one side, you have what we’ll call Thoughtlessness, and on the other side we have Rumination.

Let’s start with Thoughtlessness - what does that word make us think of?

–Not looking before you leap
–Not thinking before you act
–Carelessness

These are all valid examples. Thoughtlessness and reflection remind us of the Prodigal Son story. The prodigal son thoughtlessly squandered all of his inheritance. Which begs the question:
How do we pull ourselves out of thoughtlessness and back into reflection?

I like to refer to the humble semicolon [ ; ] also known as a pause.
Pausing allows us to think, to pray, to take account of our situation. When the prodigal son was living a lavish lifestyle on dad’s dime, he didn’t need to pause. Things were great! It’s when he was hit with the harsh reality of poverty - he had no choice but to pause.
When we pause, we invite reflection.

Let’s explore the other side of the spectrum - Rumination. What does it mean to ruminate?

–Loops of repetitive, negative thoughts
–Replaying mistakes without finding solutions
–Leads to resentment or depression

If you were thinking along these lines, you’d be correct! I remember a time from high school, where a kid known for “borrowing” money decided it was my turn to be asked. I had the spare change and lent it to him. Time passes, but the kid didn’t pay me back, and it really started to bother me. I found myself thinking about it, A LOT, and routinely asked if they had the money to pay me back. “Tomorrow,” was the usual answer I got. So that brings up another question:

How do we go from rumination back to reflection?

When we can find something to be learned, we can find value in the experience. When we do this, we turn toward reflection. In my case, the lesson was to never lend out money I expect to get back. And all things considered it wasn’t very expensive to learn.

01/25/2026

Hey GOSA gamers,

In anticipation for the bad weather ahead, we won’t have in person church service tomorrow. As such, we’ll be postponing our January gaming session until next Sunday.

Join us on February 1st for food, fun, and fellowship as we begin our 12 Virtue Series for 2026!

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Painesville, OH
44077

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